The Shepherd’s Crown (Audiobook review)

 

The Shepherd's Crown
by Terry Pratchett
Series: Discworld, Book 41
Audiobook - 7 hrs and 49 mins
Narrated By Stephen Briggs

The Shepherd’s Crown is Terry Pratchett's final Discworld novel, published after his death, but written more or less parallel with the last one published before he died – Raising Steam, which I also briefly reviewed a couple of months back: here.

The Shepherd’s Crown makes some references to that book(and the Discworld having entered the age of railways and machines); but it belongs in the “Witches” subseries of the Discworld books, and is the fifth one to feature the young witch Tiffany Aching.

Terry Pratchett (1948-2015) suffered from Alzheimer’s disease in his last years. To me there is really nothing in this novel to indicate memory problems, or his leaving this novel not fully finished. (It is explained in an afterword that Pratchett had the whole storyline worked out in his script; but had he lived to completely finish it himself, it is likely that he would have filled in some parts with more detail.) What I do believe I sense is an awareness in the author of life drawing to a close; and of a wish to tidy things up and leave everything in good order.

The novel starts out with the witch Granny Weatherwax doing just that: tidying things up, and making sure that her acknowledged position as head witch is passed on to the right person. And after she has passed away, the young witch Tiffany, even though she has proved her powers before, finds herself confronted with rather overwhelming challenges: How on earth shall she be able to cope with the tasks she has already, and step into Granny’s boots as well? Especially when on top of all, she has to deal with another confrontation with the Fairies trying to break through into the world of humans once again…

While it is rather sad that this is the last novel in the series (Pratchett’s daughter has said that there will be no more), I think it is really a very worthy ending – and I’m glad it was published.

If you want to know more about the Discworld, the Wikipedia article provides a lot of information, including a complete Bibliography which is very helpful whether you want to read the books in the order they were written, or according to subseries.  

 

 

Booking Through Thursday on a Saturday

On Siblings and Reading Habits

This week’s Booking Through Thursday question was about siblings and reading habits:

Do you have siblings?
Do they like to read?
Do/did you have the same taste in books?
(the last question is my own addition)

As most of my regular readers know, I have one brother, six years younger than me. Going by my memories, in childhood I think I might have read more ‘books’ while he was more into comic books and non-fiction – like  the Guinness Book of World Records for example. (He always seemed to have a knack for remembering odd pieces of facts!) He was/is also more into science fiction than I was.

We do not read all the same books, but through the years there are some reading experiences that we have particularly enjoyed sharing. For one thing, we are both Anglophiles (loving all things British). For another, we both like listening to audio books, and prefer to read/listen to English books in English rather than in Swedish translation. We also both enjoy for example some of the same books in the fantasy genre, classic mysteries, and some historical novels.

One author that my brother introduced me to is Terry Pratchett; and as he has kept on collecting the audio books and feeding me with them, I think by now I have listened to all of them (and some even twice or more). I’ve never yet read one printed on paper though, which makes it a bit difficult to write proper reviews, go back and find quotes etc.

Between 1983 and 2011 there have been 39 Discworld novels published! Each book is a complete story, but there are also subseries within the series. The Wikipedia Discworld article gives a good introduction and some advice on reading order, if you’re not already familiar with the series and don’t know where to start.

The first one that my brother tempted me with was Guards! Guards! – the first in the City Watch subseries. It had dragons in it, so then I was hooked…

Ruby Tuesday: The Dish World

Hilarious if you are familiar with Terry Pratchett’s Discworld.
(If not, then it’s probably just odd…)

For Ruby Tuesday at Work of the Poet.

ABC Wednesday - H for Headology

Mannequin heads at the Textile Museum

… … …

“I believe the ability to think is blessed.
If you can think  about a situation, you can deal with it.
The big struggle is to keep your head clear enough to think.”
~ Richard Pryor ~

… … …

“Headology” is a word used in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels.
It is similar to psychology, but sort of more… practical….

“The power of Headology is not to be underestimated. Clearly, the way a person sees himself and the surrounding world forms the person's reality. If this view is changed effectively through the use of Headology then this person's reality changes. This allows witches to make people think they are frogs, for example. Witches generally think that Headology is a more powerful style of magic than any of the fancy stuff wizards use. Headology is what witching is all about. A witch needs a very powerful, focused, and trained mind to use Headology. Granny Weatherwax is the foremost practitioner of Headology on Discworld.”

Discworld & Pratchett Wiki http://wiki.lspace.org/wiki/Headology